Field of Lost Shoes

[BanzaiCat]

I was exhausted after a very long day last night and was looking for something short to watch on Netflix before bed, when I stumbled across a movie called Field of Lost Shoes. It's about the VMI Corps of Cadets being 'recruited' to augment the Confederate forces moving against Union troops moving into the Shenandoah Valley in 1864.

I only managed the first 20 minutes or so of the movie, but what I saw was impressive. Tom Skerritt and Keith David are some of the actors I saw, and they all looked good for the part. Lauren Holly is also in it, but she hasn't come up yet; also, David Arquette is in it too but I haven't seen him yet either.

After stopping the movie I did a quick search and found some interesting stuff on VMI's website about the Cadets that were killed at New Market:

http://www.vmi.edu/archives.aspx?id=5897

If you click the first name, Samuel F. Atwill, you'll see another link near the bottom ("Additional Online Resources"). Click it and you'll find a page with some letters he wrote home, as well as a letter that the Superintendant wrote to his parents to announce his death. The other cadet links don't have anything like that unfortunately, but I found it fascinating that a couple of his letters and that 'regret to inform you' letter were preserved. Haven't read them all, just a paragraph or two, but they provided some very interesting insight.